


Sorcerer’s Spin

by Jathis



Category: Sofia the First (Cartoon)
Genre: Autism, Brother-Sister Relationships, Dancing, Family, Fluff, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Stim, Stimming, Uncle-Niece Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28407387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jathis/pseuds/Jathis
Summary: Cedric had always liked moving his body to music no one else could hear.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Sorcerer’s Spin

**Author's Note:**

> Cedric is Autistic and his constant dancing around/twirling is how he stims.

His mother noticed it a few weeks after her baby started to walk. The baby would laugh, spinning around in a slow and awkward circle. Sometimes he fell but he always got back up, trying again. He got faster as he grew older and Winifred sometimes joined in, spinning around with her four year old son as he laughed and laughed. She encouraged Cedric to do what made him happy, praising him whenever he danced around in excitement.

Goodwyn expressed some worries about it. “What if it means there’s something wrong with him? How will he be able to carry on the family legacy looking like a drunk ballerina.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my Ceddykins!” Winifred hissed, glaring at her husband. “It just means he has music in his soul and he likes to dance it out! My great-grandfather was known for flapping his hands when he was excited and no one  _ dared  _ to say this weakened his magic!” She refused to let her husband try to stop Cedric from spinning. Her son was perfect the way he was.

***

Roland the Second noticed it whenever they went out to play Dazzleball. Cedric sometimes twirled around as they went to collect the ball, making up little dance steps along the way. Whenever they won a game or made a difficult shot, he would spin and shout in excitement. They had invented the Royal Ricochet after Cedric had gotten overly excited from catching the ball turned into a frisbee, spinning around and accidentally throwing it against the trunk of a tree at an angle. Roland quickly caught the ball and the two decided that this was a very clever strategy to use for the game.

“What are you doing?” the prince asked one day as Cedric spun on the heel of one foot.

“I’m happy,” Cedric answered with a smile.

And because they were children and best friends; Roland accepted this as an answer and smiled back at him.

***

His sister Cordelia liked to stick her arms out when she joined her brother in a spin. Sometimes she would let her hair down, letting it fly freely around her. Her brother knew such good games to play!

She immediately stopped after the Incident and snapped at him whenever she saw Cedric start to turn in any way. “Normal people don’t go around in circles!” she said.

“But...it makes me happy,” Cedric whispered, hurt by her words.

“If you can’t be happy without acting like that then you should stop being happy!” she countered. “What do you have to be happy about anyway? You ruined everything for me!”

Cedric stopped doing it around his sister.

***

“I don’t want to play with you if you’re going to keep doing that,” Roland said when Cedric asked if he wished to play Dazzleball, hopping a little as he approached. “It’s not normal.”

“...it’s just what my body wants to do when I’m happy,” Cedric softly said.

“Control your body better than you control your spells,” the prince said. He was learning cruelty from the adults around them as children sadly did and he felt no regret as the younger boy with grey bangs walked away with his head down. Cedric was seen as an embarrassment to his father; Roland would make sure that he would never be seen as one by  _ his  _ father.

Cedric stopped doing it around Roland.

***

He was scolded more and more for doing it in front of others. Several of his teachers at Hexley Hall had yelled at him in front of the entire class, using him as an example of poorly behaved sorcerers.

“This is not what normal people do.”

“Proper sorcerers don’t do that.”

“This is why you are seen as a bungler. Don’t you want to change that? At least for your poor father’s sake!” 

Later his classmates continued the lesson, taunting and mocking him for his movements. A few times one of the older students would mock his spinning, impersonating him before bursting into laughter. The only one who didn’t mock him for it was Greylock but that was because he was teasing Cedric about everything else.

One teacher never said anything about his odd movements. The kind man just smiled and told Cedric to be himself. “Just keep trying. You can do anything as long as you never give up.”

One teacher’s kindness was not enough to combat the cruel words and punishments set down by the others. He taught himself to push down the urge, hiding his happiness from everyone because it was seen as wrong. His classmates started to see him as a reclusive over the years and they avoided him. Cedric found that he liked it better that way.

His mother still encouraged him to spin. She tried to teach her son to ignore what everyone said and focus on finding his own happiness. She could only watch sadly as her son stopped dancing and twirling as he used to, her heart going out to him. She hoped one day her son could be happy again.

***

As an adult Cedric stopped caring what everyone thought. No matter what he did he was mocked and ridiculed so what did it matter if he was made fun of for this too? It could just be added to the pile of things they hated him for.

His mummy had been right. He should never hide his happiness for the comfort of others. They didn’t deserve to have that kind of power over him.

The royal sorcerer could be seen at times dancing and twirling around during his work in his tower. Sometimes he even used Wormwood’s perch in lieu of a dancing partner. Occasionally a villager or two saw the odd man moving wildly, his robes swirling around his body. He was seen by most as a fairly grim person so most people avoided him like the plague, thinking it was just some kind of oddity about him.

Cedric found that he spun and danced around more often now that Sofia had come to the castle. Even while he was scheming to steal her amulet and harness its power, she always drew a small twirl from him. The young princess had seen him occasionally hopping around in a twirl and she had joined him, giggling when he spun her around once in the village.

His niece loved the way her uncle danced around when he moved. The little girl did her best to imitate his movements, giggling as she wiggled her hips like he did. She liked when he picked her up and held her close during a twirl or when he held her hands and spun around in a circle, swinging her feet in the air!

“Uncle Ceddy is the best dancer in the world!” she announced to her mother one day. Cedric could only blush, avoiding looking at his sister as his niece hugged him around one of his legs.

Winifred smiled to herself as she watched her son do a little twirl after performing for the Royal family. No one mocked him after he had saved Sofia from the amulet. He wasn’t afraid of showing everyone how he expressed himself. She even caught sight of Prince James imitating the sorcerer in delight. After everything that had happened, her son had found his happiness again.


End file.
